Even for the most pessimistic of fans, there wasn’t much to gripe about in Georgia’s 31-10 over Appalachian State on Saturday.
The veteran defense lived up to its hype with a dominating performance. The special-teams units looked stronger than they have in years. The offensive line struggled some early but seemed to improve as the game went on, and yes, after the injury to quarterback Jacob Eason in the first quarter, the offense thrived with Jake Fromm operating it.
Georgia’s showing was definitely an encouraging one, but let’s not get too excited just yet. A year ago, Georgia was in a similar spot. After a commanding second-half performance and win against a ranked opponent in North Carolina, the Bulldogs vaulted nine spots in the rankings up to No. 9 and there was talk of them being a dark-horse playoff contender.
A week later, Georgia had to sweat one out at home, 26-24 over FCS opponent Nicholls, and things didn’t get much better from there as the Bulldogs wound up going an underwhelming 8-5 on the year, counting the Liberty Bowl win over TCU.
While Appalachian State is a solid team with talented players, the reality is the Mountaineers are a Sun Belt Conference team that doesn’t have the overall roster talent and depth to be able to thrive in the Southeastern Conference. They have been elevated as a program based largely off their gigantic upset of Michigan in Ann Arbor 10 years ago. They got close to winning and probably should have won in Knoxville against Tennessee last year, but they didn’t. And then in a home game against a good Miami team, they fell flat in a blowout loss.
Georgia is going to see much stronger competition, starting Saturday at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are coming off a disappointing 4-8 campaign in 2016, but they looked solid in their opener, routing Temple 49-16.
The Irish will be bigger than Appalachian State — their veteran offensive line outweighs the Mountaineers by an average of 21 pounds across the board. They have a faster quarterback and much more explosive playmakers will provide a much more rigorous test for Georgia’s secondary that is battling injuries and doesn’t have the depth the team enjoys at other spots. The most intriguing aspect of Saturday night’s matchup now appears to be how Fromm will fare in his first career start.
Eason, who has been diagnosed with a sprained knee ligament, won’t play this week, and while it’s unclear how much time he will miss, he’ll likely be out a few weeks so the job is Fromm’s for the time being. Fromm certainly looked the part against App State, going 10-of-15 for 143 yards and a touchdown. But let’s pump the brakes before we declare him Lou Gehrig and usher Eason off into the land of Wally Pipp.
Yes, Eason looked rushed and uncomfortable while he was in the game Saturday, throwing too high on two of his three pass attempts. And the play on which he got hurt was questionable judgment at best in that he should have just thrown the ball away instead of running for the sideline and putting himself in a position to be shoved out of bounds. Fromm, by contrast, looked composed and managed the game well. His best weapon was his accuracy. He also made a couple of questionable throws, but considering he entered Saturday night not knowing if he would play at all, it was a great performance. There’s no doubting the talent that Fromm, a former 5-star recruit, brings to the table, but he will get a much more difficult test this week in South Bend.
The Fighting Irish defensive front seven is regarded as the strength of their team, and Georgia’s offensive line is still a work in progress. While the unit seemed to play better as the game went on and they began to overpower a smaller App State defensive line, there were still too many plays where Georgia runners were stopped for little or no gain. The line will need to play significantly better this week to protect Fromm and give him ample time to make plays. The praise being showered on Fromm is justifiable for now, but it also reminds me of the remarks being made about Eason after his debut against North Carolina last year in which he came in for starter Greyson Lambert and helped lead the Bulldogs to their most impressive win of the year.
Eason had an overall solid freshman season, but he didn’t show the progress from the beginning to the end of the season that most people were expecting. Had he not gotten hurt Saturday, it’s likely he may very well have settled down, played a good game and led Georgia to just as comfortable of a win.
He’s still the more experienced of the two quarterbacks and I suspect if he is back this season, head coach Kirby Smart won’t hesitate to put him back in.
Fromm, though, will be given every opportunity to say something about that, starting with Saturday’s highly-anticipated matchup with the Irish.
There’s reason to believe he can deliver, but let’s keep those expectations tempered.
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Scott Thompson is the editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He can be reached at sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com.

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